Acquired epilepsy

Epilepsy can be congenital but it can also occur after brain injury. Stroke is the most common cause of epilepsy in industrialized countries. Other causes are dementia, head injury, brain tumors, infection or inflammation.

Goal

The research aims to understand the emergence and the prevention, as well as improve the treatment of acquired epilepsy.

Ongoing projects

With the help of national registers the incidence, antiepileptic treatment and prognosis for acquired epilepsy is charted. The project has so far shown that epilepsy after stroke is common and associated with a worse survival rate. Analyses of acquired epilepsy in other brain diseases, and which antiepileptic drugs seem to work best, are ongoing or planned. The project also conducts research on whether advanced imaging or blood tests can be used to predict acquired epilepsy and the significance of acquired epilepsy for quality of life. Several subprojects are based on national collaborations, for example with researchers at the Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala and Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.

Awarded Grants

Johan Zelano has a higher clinical research position at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The donors are Jeansson's foundations, Swedish Society of Medicine, Gothenburg Society of Medicine, Felix Neubergh Foundation, Magnus Bergvalls foundation, Promobilia, the Linnéa & Josef Carlsson's Foundation and Margarethahemmet.